DYOR 🔬

You've probably seen talk of Opepen and the phrase "For the culture" on your timeline this week. If you don't know what it's all about, we're here to help.

Back in January, Jack Butcher, the British-born, Tennesse-based digital artist (and friend of The Metaversalist) known for his innovative Web3 artworks like Checks and his powerful, minimalist imagery under the banner Visualize Value, created a free mint, open edition NFT project called "Opepen Edition."

The project generated ~16,000 pieces, but the Opepen movement really exploded last week thanks to two pseudonymous Web3 influencers taking an interest in it.

The biggest holder of Opepens, Bored Elon, proposed a trade with ThreadGuy where he’d swap an early Opepen in exchange for the Mutant Ape ThreadGuy's built his online persona around. The trade didn't work out, but it got ThreadGuy interested in Opepens... along with much of Web3 Twitter.

Unprompted, Butcher created a custom Opepen based on the palette of ThreadGuy's Mutant, which ThreadGuy (also unprompted) set as his profile picture — a massive gesture of support given the Mutant is so central to ThreadGuy’s digital identity.

Butcher then created "Opepen Threadition," an open edition of the custom ThreadGuy Opepen, with proceeds from the sale of the ~$2 pieces going to ThreadGuy to thank him for his contributions to the Web3 space.

That really opened the floodgates, with influencers and brands creating Opepens of their own and using them as their profile pictures (though many brands did it for a day before reverting to their usual PFPS… what can we say, bandwagon-jumpers gonna jump).

True to the maxim that, “If it trends in Web3 for long enough Beeple will make art about it,” the infamous digital artist got on board with the trend, too, creating multiple pieces commemorating the act of Web3-enabled altruism.

Butcher and his code wizard pal, Jalil, have also released an AI-powered Opepen tool (that was actually built a few months back) that lets users create Opepens of their own using text prompts.

Where the Opepen project will go is anybody's guess, but its vision of an open, participatory future supported by AI and digital art is precisely the sort of thing we at Metaversal can get behind.

For the culture!

To the moon 🌙

• In other news, we bought a CryptoPunk:

• Proof, the entity behind the Proof Collective and Moonbirds, has launched “Mythics,” its new NFT collection of 20,000 that’ll be revealed at a rate of 100 a day for 200 days.

• Doodles confirmed it’ll open the doors to its Doodles x CAMP experience in Chicago on August 19. You’ll need a timed ticket to attend. Tickets are on sale now and cost $28:

• The second-griftiest Trump, Melania, ran afoul of NASA this week after releasing an Apollo 11 moon-landing-themed NFT called “Man on the Moon” (at $75 a pop) that shamelessly used an image of Buzz Aldrin’s famous stroll on the surface of Earth’s longest-standing satellite without consent.

• Super Bowl star Patrick Mahomes plans to drop a 15,000-piece NFT collection in September dubbed the “Museum of Mahomes”:

• Another week, another NFT marketplace, this time from digital wallet operator Argent, called “Unframed” and build on the L2, Starknet.

• Got cryptocurrency burning a hole in your pocket? Have you considered betting on live-streamed hamster racing?

Thread of the week 🧵

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Until next time, see you in the metaverse!